CQC sets out tougher inspections approach

It has launched a consultation in response to criticism following the Winterbourne View scandal and amid scrutiny into its role as part of the public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.

Under the proposals, the CQC will inspect trusts once a year and judge them to be either “compliant” or “non compliant”: Currently, inspections are risk based and organisations can be classed as compliant even if the regulator has concerns about services.

Organisations will no longer be allowed to extend the timescales they are given to improve.  Failures stretching beyond a given deadline will trigger an escalation of powers up to and including closure and prosecution.

The fact that a failing might have little impact on patients will no longer count towards the CQC’s judgement as to whether or not a service is compliant. Instead, the impact of failings will be noted after a compliance decision has been reached.

The regulator’s views on an organisation’s ability to improve will also cease to feed into decisions on compliance.

All warning notices will be published within compliance reports, unlike at present. The current situation means that “people who use services are unaware of any action being taken on a provider or manager. This can be of major concern to people where it appears that we are not acting on information received,” the document says.